Rabbi Michael Fish is one of several rabbis indicted yesterday, and criminal complaints and news reports say he’s the rabbi of “Congregation Sheves Achim” in Brooklyn.

According to several non-profit registries, there is only one organization with “Sheves Achim” in the name in New York State, and that’s “Cong Sheves Achim” of 3054 Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn.

But pulling up Google Street View, it doesn’t look like much of a congregation, does it?

And according to the phone book, it is the residential home of a man named Joseph Meisner. When I called that home, a child picked up the phone, and claimed not to have heard of any such congregation, any such rabbi, and that 3054 Bedford Avenue is just a family home with no particular involvement in any Jewish organizations or congregations. The child also said some people had stopped by the day before asking if it was a congregation, and he’d told them it wasn’t.

Which is interesting, because if you look through all the non-profits registered in that ZIP code, 3054 Bedford Avenue comes up more than once — it actually comes up quite a lot.

According to non-profit registries, there are at least 97 non-profits registered to that one address — and having sorted through a couple dozen of them, all claim to be religious organizations not needing to file a non-profit disclosure form 990, so there’s almost no information available about them.

These non-profits seem be exclusively of the Orthodox Jewish type, often listed as synagogues, yeshivas, and the like.

Oh, and just try to find further mention of “Rabbi Mordechai Fish” (or “Mordchai”) unrelated to this probe, anywhere on the Web. I couldn’t, and I found exactly one mention of Congregation Sheves Achim on the Web prior to the crime news, on a Breslov Chasidic events listing:

A born and bred Brooklynite, Rabbi Peretz Auerbach made aliyah many years ago and learned from many masters until he became an accomplished scholar in all areas if Torah. Today he is one of the key figures in Breslov outreach. Rabbi Auerbach is presently working on a commentary on the Zohar in English, b’derekh avodah — as related to spiritual practice, both in prayer, meditation, and the inner work of tikkun ha-middos / self-refinement. The Breslov Center and Congregation Sheves Achim / The Flatbush Minyan are honored to host him for this Shabbaton in Brooklyn on his spring trip to the US.

Comments

CONGREGATION SHEVET ACHIM

708 AVENUE T
BROOKLYN, NY 11223

Phone: (718) 375-3895

I betcha there is an ACORN connection! I hope somebody looks long, hard and deep! Bernie Madeoff, the Hassidic Meat Packing company hiring illegals and paying them below minimal wage and treating them like the animals they were slaughtering, all the Wall Street finaglers, they all are reigniting the old anti-Semitic stereotypes. And with B. Hussein Obama putting his feet up in the face of Netanyahu and releasing the photo showed the entire Muslim world in that one eloquent posture just how he plans on dealing with Israel. This is the man who’s pastor, Rev. Wright, is enamored with Calypso Louie.

Easy Surf — That congregation is Syrian, where it seems that Fish is Hasidic.

I knew R. Fish personally for many years. The schul called Sheves Achim exists for quite a long time (over 15 years) and is on the North corner of 14th Avenue and 40th Street (facing South-East) in Brooklyn 11218. You can see it in Google maps, the sign above and all. It is not Syrian.
The fact that 97 non-profits are registered to one address is curiuos, but doesn’t mean anything.
I am saddened by the news, and I hope the prosecution fails to make their case in court. R. Fish has done nothing but good.

I know Rabbi Auerbach and helped organize that lecture. The Congregation Sheves Achim synagogue where he spoke had NOTHING to do with any of this and is located on Ave. H. The congregation’s spiritual leader is Rabbi Meyer Fund, not Michael or Mordechai Fish, and he has nothing to do with this mess, either. Just for the record.

Just to put the records straight, I am involved in the activities of a certain Congregation, and while doing some research it’s interesting that the same address of 3054 Bedford Avenue came up. We have no connection to this address and this address has nothing to do with us. This just shows that there’s no scam involved it’s just an IRS glitch in the system